Survival analysis of patients with glioblastoma treated by long-term administration of temozolomide

This analysis aimed to investigate whether the long-term administration of temozolomide (TMZ) claimed a survival advantage for patients with glioblastoma in China.A total of 75 patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Shenzhen People's Hospital between August 2008 and August 2016 were retrospectively evaluated during analysis. A propensity-matched analysis was performed to balance the basic characteristics of patients between compared groups. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model were used to assess progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients receiving 6 adjuvant TMZ cycles compared with patients treated with more than 6 cycles.Twenty of 75 patients received more than 6 cycles of TMZ, and the other 55 patients were treated with a median of 6 cycles ranging from 1 to 6. The patients with long-term administration of TMZ had better OS (47.0 months, 95% CI 20.0-73.9 vs 20.6 months, 95% CI 17.9-23.2, P = .014) but not PFS (17.0 months, 95% CI 10.1-24.5 vs 14.2 months, 95% CI 11.8-16.6, P = .133). Balancing the clinical factors with a propensity-matched analysis also showed the significant advantage of prolonged TMZ application in terms of OS but not PFS.Prolonged administration of TMZ beyond 6 cycles did demonstrate survival benefits for patients with initially diagnosed glioblastoma.